By James Gilchrist, Naturopathic Doctor, Licensed Acupuncturist
A dear friend of mine suffered a tragedy some years ago when a dry winter and high winds combined to create a fire that swept through her neighborhood. In an instant, her home and all that went with that was incinerated. Among the most painful losses, she said, were the memories stored in picture form on her devices. For the new year coming up, she said that “Embrace the Cloud” mantra. I think we all know exactly what she meant even though she referenced an ancient Sanskrit word with a complex history. I’m not here to enlighten you on all that meaning, but I would like to share with you one meaning of that word and that is “mind protector.”
It’s important for us to have a mind protector we can take with us. Something to calm our nervous system and by extension our various types of muscles as we encounter stressing situations throughout the course of our day. Or as in my friend’s case, something to help us remember to do something we have learned to be important. I often encourage people to think of one while they are on the acupuncture table, and especially so while performing Tibetan Cranial, a relatively recent addition to the services performed at my office. During this practice, cerebral spinal fluid courses vigorously over the sulci of your brain and then down your spinal cord, making it an effective treatment to carry your mantra on your nervous system out to every cell in your body.
But this piece is meant to concentrate on the mantra itself. I recently took a deep dive into the book of Esther and found a deeply enriching debate in some rabbinical texts describing the dilemma that Esther faced when the Haman tried to launch a genocide of her people. As the rabbis have a long history of debate over the scriptural texts and an understanding of the Hebrew language I am lacking, I found their deliberations fertile ground for discovering several layers within the story that had never been apparent to me simply reading an English translation. Verse one of Chapter 5 of the King James Version was a diving board of sorts for me in this journey of discovery. It reads,
“Now it came to pass on the third day, that Esther put on her royal apparel, and stood in the inner court of the king’s house,”
One help that the KJV translators give us here is the italicized “her” and “apparel” — the translators are signaling to you there that they added those words in themselves. So, a more literal translation of the Hebrew would say, “Esther wore royalty.” The rabbis also take note of this strange diction, and trusting God to be a good teacher more than he is poor at grammar, seek to understand what else is going on here.
A good point they bring up is the concordance of the word “stood” in the rest of the Hebrew bible. The Hebrew word used here is העמדה or ta’amod transliterated. This is the same word used way back in Genesis 29:35 used to describe Leah’s actions after bearing Judah, her 4th son, to Jacob. This action was described as a pause in her childbearing for a time, indeed many English translations of this verse say “she named him Judah and then she stopped bearing.” So, the Hebrew describes something different here than just that Esther stood in the inner court, waiting for her turn. I was perhaps primed for this lesson because I happen to know that in Arabic the word Amud means statue, so to ta’amud in Arabic literally means to freeze up like stone statue. It implies a cessation of movement. The Rabbis have a field day with this one word, which was much to my benefit in contemplating the importance of having a Mantra. They turn to the Psalms for understanding what caused Esther to stop. I should first say that the Book of Esther in Rabbinic debate is an extremely important book. If I understood correctly, they characterize Esther’s actions here as completing the momentous occasion of God sending the law down the mountain with Moses after the incident with the golden calf. While that instance was God dictating from on high what he wanted his people to do, Esther’s actions represent Israel reaching back, willing to receive and obey God’s divine instructions. For this, Esther embodies the kabbalistic virtue of “Malkhut” or royalty, which is an expression of giving God’s presence a vessel to dwell in on earth. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
Having clothed herself in “malkhut” after her fast, she just as quickly loses it, an emergency of epic proportions as she is about to enter the King’s throne room on pain of death. The rabbis look to Psalm 22 for clarification on what happened here.
My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?
For Jews and Christians alike, this will be a familiar verse as it is the same verse the Gospels say Jesus uttered after being lifted up on the cross. Indeed, you or I may see ourselves uttering this verse at a time in our life when a prayer seems unanswered. This sudden loss of the spirit may have come about some of the rabbis say, due to the many idols likely painted or sculpted in the inner court of King Xerxes’ palace. However, there is another contributor to Esther’s loss of spirit, and this is what concerns us as we talk about Mantra. One debate I read hinted that Esther lost the spirit because she started to pray for the wrong thing. Verse 20 and 21 of the same Psalm read,
Deliver my soul from the sword; my life from the power of the dog.
Save me from the lion’s mouth.
These two lines represent the turnaround for her according to the debate I read. Esther is troubled because Haman, King Xerxes’ chief advisor, has sent out an edict calling for the genocide of the Jewish people in the Persian empire. He represents the dog in this scenario. Esther perhaps carries this prayer in her mind, “God please save me and my people from this dog Haman.” The Rabbis say that God withdraws His spirit not as a punishment, but rather as an example of Him drawing her a little deeper and more correctly into His right path. In other words, it’s important for Esther to understand the true nature of the threat, namely, not just the dog that threatens her, but also the lion — King Xerxes. Even if she successfully navigates Haman, her dilemma still remains. The king after all was perfectly happy to condone the genocide, giving Haman his ring to carry it out without impunity. It was important for God that Esther understand that as she goes into this fight.
After she makes this adjustment to her prayer, the heavenly presence returns, and she carries it boldly into the throne room, where the King extends his golden scepter and Esther is safe for the time being.
Prayer can be a time where we wrestle with God and conform our will to His. A Mantra is often the distilled version of that prayer, the one or two-liner we can repeat often as we approach a place we’d rather not be in, but need to be, for some broader purpose.
Now your Mantra may not be simply a matter of focusing on the right enemy to vanquish, but whatever it is it can benefit from having more details to inspire you more. I wish you godspeed as you contemplate your own mantra, or update one that feels outdated, may it inspire your heart and mind and keep your thoughts in protected spaces as you navigate life.